The 28-year-old Romine will add another name to the mix of internal candidates to replace the injured Jose Iglesias at shortstop for the Tigers. In a career-high 123 plate appearances with the Halos last season, Romine batted .259/.308/.287 and saw action at third base, shortstop and second base. In his limited time at shortstop in the Majors, Ultimate Zone Rating and Defensive Runs Saved peg Romine as below average at shortstop, but small sample warnings should definitely be applied, as he's played just 189 innings there at the game's top level. Baseball America ranked him as the best defensive infielder in the Angels' system four times from 2007-11.

Alvarez, 24, made his Major League debut last season and posted a 5.82 ERA in 38 2/3 innings with 7.2 K/9, 3.7 BB/9 and a 40.3 percent ground-ball rate. Opposing lefties roughed him up at a .265/.321/.531 batting line, but he's been much better in the minors. At the Triple-A level, Alvarez has a 2.80 ERA with 8.0 K/9 and 1.7 BB/9 in 128 1/3 innings. He was named Detroit's Minor League Pitcher of the Year in 2013.

I don’t know much about Alvarez, but I am pretty sure that Romine was not going to make the Angels this year, and he was out of options. I also don’t know much about the Tigers’ other options at SS, but looks like they really needed someone, and a good defensive SS who *might* do something was probably worth a chance.

I would think that Dirks and Iglesias would be replaced on the roster by Romine and Worth. With Hunter, Jackson, Davis, Kelly, and Lombardozzi all being capable in the outfield, they sort of need a guy that can play all of the infield positions, specifically SS. Romine and Worth presumably fill those roles as starter and backup.

Romine bulked up this off season and started to show some pop. He actually hit a Spring Training HR for the first time ever. He also made two errors in one inning. He has size and versatility combined with decent speed. He’s always been more of a slap hitter though in my opinion.

Arbitrage value (as measured by WAR) right now is in low cost platoons. Romine is a league minimum player for two more years. With Lombardozzi and Krol, that makes 3 cheap players the Tigers got in the offseason. Hoarding these players will allow the Tigers to get more expensive players and keep the AAV of all of their players to be reasonable.

Just a thought, but #DKB (Donnie Kelly Baby) may be too expensive to keep as Romine AND Worth together will cost the same as him, plus they have Lombardozzi at the league minimum.

Romine is not young (28), but he should be at the peak of his career. 2.6 WAR in the minors maybe translates to 1/2 that in the majors.

Must I’m not the biggest fan of this deal. Romine is nothing special but he was LAA’s one and only legitimate defensive back up to Eric Aybar at SS. Now LAA has no one to play SS if Aybar get injured and Jose Alveres is not a very inspiring return.

The Angels are going to open the season with 13 pitchers so only 3 bench players. That leaves 1) Back up catcher (Conger), 2) 4th OF (probably Shuck) 3) IF utility man (I assume McDonald since Green still has MiLB options left). Must say I am not really thrilled with that, McDonald’s offense is bad even when compared to Romine and his defense was below average at every IF position last year.

Grant Green, John McDonald, Luis Jiminez. More than adequate. If you expect great gloves from your backup infielders all the time then you’ll be in for a lot of disappointment. No team always has great D from all of their bench players every season. There’s a reason they’re on the bench in the first place. I don’t know what minor league stats you’re looking at, but I’m seeing some pretty darn good numbers from Alvarez in several seasons; and not just ERA, but WHIP as well. His WHIP was at 1.080 in AAA last season. That’s Jered Weaver territory if that translated to the big leagues. More than likely, Alvarez will turn out to be a decent swing man, which is what the Angels and just about every other team needs. Alvarez could develop into another cost controlled asset.

Since the Diamondbacks are looking for starting pitching, why didn’t the Tigers send Jose Alvarez to the Snakes for Didi? He has Major League experience and a young Lefty. DD must have needed to sweeten the pot a little too much, so settled for Romine.